Speaking

We’ve all experienced a well-meaning advice that resulted in disaster… or was completely ignored. And nobody wants to be Debbie Downer (check out this classic and hilarious SNL video): The way you communicate advice determines whether others can and will listen to what you have to say. Then they might even act on your feedback.…

I’ve trained many CEOs on how to improve their speaking abilities for their on-stage debut in front of hundreds of their peers. Here’s the best practices I’ve gleaned from many, many rehearsals and general sessions. Don’t skip these tips if you don’t give speeches in your job – you never know when you’ll need to…

I just read a great post on building confidence and destroying fear at GetRichSlowly.org. I love this because I find that so many people let fear dominate all their decision-making. I have known many people who have stayed in a dead-end job, abusive relationship, or missed out on a great opportunity because they were too…

My local newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, sent me an interesting story in their news email blast. The headline read: “City threatens blind woman over unpaid 1-cent bill.” Uh-oh, I thought: PR disaster. Some auto-billing mechanism is creating a havoc. Sure enough… The city of Attleboro, Mass. sent a nastygram to a 74-year-old blind resident…

I read a very good article in Maximum Impact’s newsletter, called “7 Reasons Why Speakers Flop.” For years, I have worked with CEOs on speaking at conferences, and these are all things I worked to get across to each of them each year. As I read this article, I wanted to stand up and yell,…

Today, I had the pleasure of participating on a panel about careers in communications at St. Charles Community College. It was fun! It was put together by the SCC Speech and Communications Department, which includes Darren Osburn, associate professor, who I knew from our days together at Culver-Stockton College. The other panel organizers were: Curt…